Gaila's Universes
by Gul Bricett
Summary: There's an infinite number of Universes, so there are many possible origins for Gaila.


**Disclaimer: **Still don't own Star Trek – or else, **Star Trek Into Darkness** would be out already.

**Author's Notes: **This is, technically, a WIP. Way back on the old LJ kink meme **radiocakes** pointed out _"there's a lot of different interpretations of Gaila out there"_ and asked for some of them to meet. They gave as "p_ossible options: matriarchal Orion society!Gaila, escaped slavegirl!Gaila, 100% Federation citizen!Gaila; previous Orion pirate!Gaila; undercover Orion Syndicate agent!Gaila, Bonus points for including Mirror!Gaila"._

This prompt inspired me to start a fic about different origin stories!Gailas (who didn't want to meet, alas), but I never got to finish it. But when I recently went through my WIP folder I noticed I had two self-contained versions, which I liked and polished, and which are here now.

Will there be more? Frankly, I don't know. There's half of former slave!Gaila, and an outline of pirate!Gaila, and I had a Great Idea for Mirror!Gaila – if I only could recall it… We'll see.

In the meantime, to quote **radiocakes: **_"May all Orion canon and fanon live in harmony through this prompt"_

**Rating: **K+, will def. go up if I ever continue.

**Gaila's Universes**

There is an unknown number of parallel universes. These are some of them:

**ONE (Federation citizen!Gaila)**

Some xenosociologists would argue that there is no such thing as "Orion society", because Orions don't have a central government or even a clearly defined territory.

Their society consists of a loose network of clans, which share a common ancestry and culture. A small number of these clans have, over time, migrated into Federation territory and become citizens. They are mostly traders, often living on their ships, or run night clubs and bars on space stations and outposts. They are as law-abiding as the average of Federation citizens in these fields of work. Federation Orions are a tiny minority both among Orions and the Federation, which explains why Gaila was the first Orion in Starfleet.

Her family ran a salvage company and dealt in scrap metal and used starship parts. They lived on a space station near the Romulan Neutral Zone. When she was a little girl, the most exciting days for Gaila and the other children on the station were those when a big Starfleet vessel docked. They gathered together at their favorite observation port and marveled at the huge, shiny ship. Since then, Gaila dreamt of working on such a ship one day. So, when she came of age, she applied to Starfleet Academy, as was her right as a Federation citizen. She passed the entrance exams and was admitted.

As simply as that.

**TWO (Matriarchal society!Gaila)**

When Gaila was about five years old, her Grandmother started to worry about her.

She wasn't untalented when it came to learning how to dance and how to fight, but it was obvious that her heart wasn't in it. She was more interested in tinkering with broken equipment and playing with computers.

But even if this was work a man could do, too, it still wasn't the cause of her Grandmother's worries: Gaila was an only daughter, she would have to work together with some of her cousins on a ship anyway as an adult, so there was no harm in her becoming an engineer. What was a bit alarming was that Gaila liked boys' work and games, like playing dress-up and helping in the kitchen. And when she had to look after her little brothers and cousins, she wasn't, in Grandmother's opinion, firm enough with them. It seemed that Gaila still thought life was, first of all, fun.

So, one day when Gaila was seven, Grandmother decided to tell her a story about the importance of vigilance and the dangers of putting personal comforts over duty. She told her how her Fathermother, D'nel, had died:

D'nel was Mistress of her own small ship, and the only Orion aboard. When she left port for her last voyage, she was already at an age where most Orion women settled down with their families. But Starfleet meddling had cost her several prizes, and D'nel had three sons and no daughters. Only the eldest was already married. The two younger sons were betrothed, but D'nel was afraid their brides' families could back out of the marriage contracts, if her sons' dowries weren't big enough – and a man without mother, wife, or daughters would have to lead a life of servitude or be dependent of his cousins' charity at best.

She had two ship-mates: an Andorian named Thres and Grokar, a renegade Klingon. Both had served her for a long time. With her pheromones getting weaker, she should have had congress with them more often than before, but she chose not to do so, partly because it was, with both of the men, more of a chore than anything else for her, and partly because she made the deadly mistake to trust them after all those years.

The result was predictable: the two men shook off D'nel's control without her noticing it and waited for the right moment. Finally, they killed her in her sleep and stole the ship. They didn't get very far, because D'nel's family notified the Syndicate, which dealt with them, but the damage was done, and the ship was destroyed in the process.

What Grandmother didn't consider important enough to tell Gaila, was that D'nel's fears had been partly unfounded: when Grandmother wasn't sure if she should let Gaila's mother marry D'nel's middle son, Nelar, after this, her normally obedient daughter had defied her. She told her mother she wanted Nelar anyway, and that the family would lose face if they broke their word now. Grandmother gave in, and Nelar turned out to be an asset to the family in the end: he was a good man, sociable and fertile, and was – like Gaila's mother, who kept the family books – good with numbers and making deals. And at least he did have a dowry, even if it could have been bigger.

After she had finished her story, Grandmother asked Little Gaila what she had learned from it. She was shocked by her granddaughter's answer: Gaila told her she thought the Federation way was better, because Fed captains just had to tell their people what they should do, and could simply send those who didn't do it away – and had sex just for fun! Of course, Grandmother gave Gaila a good spanking and a month of extra chores for this cheeky answer. And because Gaila never voiced such heretic opinions again, Grandmother was sure she had finally understood the lesson.

It was probably a good thing that Grandmother didn't live to see the day it became clear Young Gaila had never really changed her mind, the day she brought shame on her whole family by running away to the Federation.


End file.
